India Summons Alibaba Founder for Unfair Employee Dismissal
Weeks after the crackdown on Chinese companies and applications, a lawsuit commenced against a retired Alibaba founder. An Indian court filed a complaint for allegations that the technology company’s subsidiaries unjustly fired a local employee.
The Chinese company recently said that it’s hard to locate its billionaire founder, Jack Ma, after his retirement.
Reports said that the court filings cited that Pushpandra Singh Parmar, a former employee of UCWeb Inc. had a wrongful termination. This is after Parmar objected to the company’s practices of censoring the content on its platform.
Aside from that, Parmar also questioned the publishing of fake news on UC News ad UC Browser.
Technology news says that the plaintiff is suing for 268,000 US dollars in damages.
Alibaba chairman for public relations, Wang Shuai, confirmed that UCWeb has received the Indian court’s notice. Shuai then added that the company’s Indian unit is already working on the said issue.
In response to questions about the retired billionaire, Shuai has said that it’s hard to find Jack Ma now.
Back in 2019, Ma official stepped down from the company’s executive chairman post. However, Ma remains as a lifetime partner for the Alibaba Partnership, a group of senior management members and affiliates.
A Gurugram district court judge sent a subpoena to the company, Jack Ma, and several other employees. He has thus called them to appear in court or act through a lawyer on Wednesday as seen in the documents.
In India, it’s common for a complainant to lift multiple defendants in court.
Parmar, who previously worked in the Alibaba subsidiary until 2017, prepared evidence of posts that circulated in UC News
Digital Economy
In other news, the Chinese giant welcomes a new Western company to its digital economy. The Seattle-based coffee maker, Starbucks, is reportedly expanding its digital footprint across China.
The company will be introducing its online order and pay feature with “Starbucks Now” in the Alibaba Digital Economy. In fact, business and marketing strategies have come a long way thanks to modern technology and Starbucks sees a big market in China.
Users can finally pre-order and pay before picking-up their orders in person. This applies to most Starbucks stores in mainland China.
More users could now engage with the company because in the past the feature was only available through the Starbucks China application. This provides a convenience for China’s expanding coffee market, especially as social distancing remains a priority for people amidst the pandemic.
Toby Xu, Alibaba’s vice president, said that the company is committed to supporting businesses through their business operating systems.
